Mark Soo’s Book Launched May 31, 2018 – Posted in: In The News – Tags: areca books, Biography, Recommended
A book launch, jointly hosted by Perak Academy and Areca Books in honour of Mark Yoi Sun Soo’s debut book, was held at Symphony Suites, Ipoh recently.
Tan Sri Dr M. Mahadevan was given the honour to launch Mark’s book.
Entitled My Days in the Sun, the book is a memoir detailing Mark’s first 40 years of his life where he spent alternating between Hong Kong and Kampar, Malaya where his father’s family herbal medicine business was located. Mark witnessed firsthand the devastation of the Japanese Occupation (1942-1945) and the Malayan Emergency (1948-1960) that followed.
The author was born in Hong Kong in 1933. He studied medicine at the University of Hong Kong and earned his degree in 1957. He worked as a general practitioner in Ipoh amidst the carnage of the Emergency. Mark then decided on a career change by attending a specialist training in radiology at the Royal Free Hospital in London.
Upon completion of the training in 1967 he returned to Malaysia to work at Kuala Lumpur’s newly established University Hospital. Following the May 13 racial riots in 1969, Mark and his family migrated to Sydney, Australia where they remain till today.
Abdur Razzaq Lubis, the Director of Areca Books, who stood in for Tan Sri Khoo Kay Kim, in his opening remarks noted that Mark’s ability to recall vivid details of his life was largely due to him being a radiologist who had an eye for details.
The author commented on his book and his publisher. “This may be the first memoir written by a radiologist”, he quipped. Mark took a pot shot at his book’s editors by alluding to Stephen King.
“The editor is always right” he said, a quote attributed to the famous writer. This was in obvious reference to the many corrections made to his draft by the publisher’s over-zealous editorial team.
The ceremony was well attended. Over a hundred took time off to witness the hour-long event. Tan Sri Dr M. Mahadevan was given the honour to launch Mark’s book.
This article first appeared on 16 July 2013 in The Ipoh Echo
